Last week, I shared something L is extremely interested in - her music group! Another thing she has also been showing a ton of interest and curiosity in lately is all different kinds of animals. We have a two-year-old Mini Goldendoodle named Henry, who is basically her best friend. He’s been a part of her life since the day we brought her home from the hospital, and I think this is a big reason why she’s always shown interest in animals. She has to pet every dog she sees at the park and can spot a squirrel from a mile away. She even makes my parents follow their cat around while on FaceTime (every. single. time).
Her interest in animals has recently expanded beyond dogs, squirrels, and cats. She’s been noticing all kinds of animals in her environment lately. I love watching her study the different creatures, especially in books. I see the connection her little brain is making. I’ve seen her look at a picture of an animal (like a gorilla for example) in a book, then up at Henry, then back to the gorilla, as if she’s thinking, “Hmm, that hairy thing on this page kind of looks like my puppy, but it’s a little bit different.”
She especially loves when we make different noises for each animal. Cow says, “Mooo.” Sheep says, “Baaa.” Chicken says, “Cluck!” You get it.
I took L’s lead on this and made some plans to take her to the FARM with some friends last week. Similar to when we went to the aquarium, before the big trip, I thought of the five major areas of development (fine motor, gross motor, sensory, vocabulary/ language, and social/emotional) that I’ve previously detailed in this post. I created some farm-related activities that we did beforehand to help support growth in these areas and also make the most out of our visit.
Here’s what that looked like this week:
Fine motor: Hide the animals. L loved this! In a large plastic bin, I placed a 12-cup muffin tin. After naming each together, I put some farm animal figures (that I bought at the Dollar Tree) in the muffin tin. In a smaller plastic bin, I gave her some rice and a large spoon. She had to scoop the rice and “hide the animals.”
Similar to most activities that we do, I left this out and she kept going back to it. She eventually realized she could pick the rice up with her hand and throw it everywhere, which she found HILARIOUS! (If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen a video of this on my story!) Yes, it made QUITE the mess to clean up but hearing her giggle made it completely worth it! This activity was great because it really doubled as a sensory activity as well!
Gross motor: Chunky farm puzzle hunt. I made these little “chunky puzzle pieces” by printing out some farm-related illustrations. I glued them to cardstock and laminated for durability. I used a corner rounder punch to round the edges (which was an incredible discovery- worth every penny!). I showed L each picture and we named each one. With her watching, I then cut each one in half (some horizontally, some vertically, and some diagonally). I wanted her to see the whole picture become two halves. I then showed her how we can separate them and put them back together to form the full picture again. She just explored these cards the first day.
On the second day, I reintroduced the cards and showed her again how we can separate and put them back together. I then took two card sets and “hid” them around the living room. She had to walk/ scoot/ crawl around and collect the pieces. I had her bring them over to me and I showed her how to put them together. We then added in a third card set.
On the third day, I included five sets and did the same activity. Each day, I added in a few more, and made the “hiding” part a little more challenging.
Most of the time, she wasn’t able to actually place the cards perfectly together to form the full picture, but she was able to identify which cards “matched.” It was a great activity to get her little body moving while also working on visual discrimination and matching.
She was very focused with this activity! I loved that it doubled as fine motor practice (placing the pieces together- with assistance) too!
Sensory: Mud baths. This activity required two plastic bins. In one bin, I placed sugar-free (less sticky!) chocolate pudding, or “mud.” In the other, I placed warm water and soap, or the “bath”. We placed the farm animal figurines (used in the “hide the animals” activity above!) in the mud to get them all dirty. We talked about how some animals play in wet dirt (AKA “mud”) and get all dirty. We then moved one animal over to the “bath” at a time. We talked about how we could wash the animals in a bath just like L gets each night to get clean (helping form connections). I offered her cleaning tools, such as a sponge and brush. She worked her little hands to clean each one. I then placed a towel next to the bath and she dried each one off. It got very messy quickly (remember- the messier, the better when it comes to sensory play!). We did this activity a couple more times, with all different kinds of animals. In the picture below, her elephant is playing in the mud.
Vocabulary/ language: Matching animals to pictures. We worked a lot on animal identification this week. We practiced matching flashcards with words and pictures to animal figurines. At first, I only showed her the realistic animals. Eventually, I also showed her the fictional characters too. I explained to her the difference. think it’s important for little learners to be exposed to both! Although L is years away from being able to read the words on the flashcards, it’s still important to expose her to text. She’ll eventually realize that things have names and names can be spelled out with letters. Such basic and foundational concepts of print, but important to expose early!
Social/ emotional: Visiting the farm. We wrapped everything up by visiting Old McMicky's Farm in Odessa, Florida with some friends. It was so much fun! We arrived early (right when they opened at 9 am) and had our own tour guide. She showed us chickens, we milked a cow, met some pigs and goats, pet a bunny, and even rode a pony! What a great ending to a FARMtastic week!
Next week, we’ll dive a little bit more into the importance of reading. I’ll share some information that explains why it is so important to read with your little learners from a young age. I’ll also share some of L’s favorite books!
We’re always looking to add more books to her home library so I’d love to hear from you! What are some of your little learner’s favorite books?
Thanks for reading! I hope you continue to follow along to find (and share!) inspiration, information, and innovation! :-)
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